iOS 11 FAQ: Everything you need to know!

Are you excited for iOS 11? We sure are! Here's the latest info on iOS 11 from WWDC 2017!

If you're someone who's been following along with all the latest announcements at WWDC, then you probably have a couple of questions about the latest version of iOS 11.

Here's everything you need to know!

What's new about iOS 11?

Messages

With iOS 10, apps and stickers were introduced, but iOS 11 makes them even more accessible with an app drawer at the bottom of your Messages screen.

App Store for iMessage has a redesigned app drawer for more convenient access to apps and stickers, so it's easier to decorate messages, share a song and more.

Also new with iMessages, when you sign into a new device, all your messages are automatically synced (so you can delete embarrassing messages across all platforms!).

There's also optimized device storage, and end-to-end encryption.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay now introduces person-to-person payment!

Send and receive money while chatting with friends and family because it's integrated right into Messages as an iMessage feature. The money you get will go into your Apple Pay cash card, so you can shop online, put it in your bank, send the money elsewhere, and more! It'll be available with all iOS devices that support Apple Pay, but will only be available in the U.S. to start.

Siri

Siri is the most popular personal assistant in the world with more than 375 million active devices accessing Siri each month across 36 countries.

Siri may be available in more languages and more countries than any other assistant, but it's time for a change! Siri's voice has changed to a more natural, less robotic tone for both the female and male voices.

Siri also has a new translation option: If you say, "Translate 'What are the most popular dishes in your restaurant in ______?'" Siri will translate and speak in that language. Right now, the translation languages are limited to English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, with more languages to come in the next few months.

SiriKit can now do more than ever: secure task management, take notes in Evernote, do banking with Citymobile, chat with WeChat, and so much more!

For example, if you've been looking at photography in Iceland or are researching a trip to Iceland online, Siri might recognize this and suggest news articles about Iceland in the News app! Now what Siri learns about you on one device is synced across all your devices.

Apple News is even better at keeping readers informed and entertained with personalized top stories and suggestions from Siri, great stories curated daily by Apple News editors in the new Spotlight tab and the best videos of the day in Today View.

Camera

With iOS 11, Apple is introducing HEVC — a format that's up to two times better, compression-wise, for camera-captured videos so you use up less space on your device.

With iOS 11, Portrait Mode images can be taken with optical image stabilization, True Tone flash and HDR, so every shot looks even more professional.

To save even more space, iOS 11 is also introducing the replacement to the JPEG called HEIF, which is half the size with twice the quality.

Photos App

If you loved the Memories feature that came with iOS 10, then you'll love being able to watch your Memories in portrait mode with iOS 11!

Live photos can now be trimmed, selected, muted, looped, rewound, and so much more. You can also go into Live photos and select the frame you want to display as the first image you see when you tap/look at it!

Oh, and did we mention you can select and alternate exposure, i.e. change the long exposure on a photo.

Control Center

Control Center now packs all its features into a single page.

Basically the new Control Center packs a ton of capabilities into a single-page design! You can control typical things, like Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, orientation, screen mirroring, and so much more, but with more access to other features, like volume and what you're listening to.

The redesigned Lock screen and Notification Center aim to combine and make things one: Scroll up, and you can get all your other notifications that you normally wouldn't with your Lock screen.

Control Center offers more customization, enabling quick access to frequently used controls all on one page, and a new Lock Screen delivers a more convenient way to see Notifications all in one place.

Maps

There are new indoor maps for exploring and shopping at major malls and maps for major airports, like Amsterdam, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Dubai, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and so many others!

There's also going to be new navigation tools, like lane guidance for when you're trying to navigate your way through traffic so you don't accidentally miss your turn-off or exit.

Do not disturb while driving

It's all about keeping your eyes on the road. When you're driving, you don't need to be responding to these kinds of messages!

Do Not Disturb While Driving is a new feature that recognizes your speed and is enabled to prevent notifications from coming through to your Lock screen and distracting you.

Instead of all those distracting notifications, your iPhone screen will go black, and if you touch the phone, it'll remind you that you're driving.

It can also automatically send a generic message when you receive a call or text, letting people know that you're driving and you'll be able to respond once you reach your destination safely. If the message needs to get through, the sender can reply with "urgent" and it'll get pushed through.

Homekit

The new AirPlay 2 protocol adds speaker support to HomeKit, so all your AirPlay-compatible speakers can be accessed via the Home app, and you can choose what plays on which speaker throughout your home.

Plus if you have a friend over that wants to contribute to the playlist, they can do it without interrupting the current song via Shared Up Next.

Third-party audio apps on iOS can also get in on the fun!

Apple Music

Apple Music also now offers more ways to discover music with friends: subscribers can create a profile so their friends can follow them, listen to playlists they've shared and see the music they listen to most.

Now you'll never need to ask "hey, what are you listening to?" ever again!

App Store

The App Store is turning nine years old this year, and nearly 80 billion apps have been downloaded to date, so it's time for a makeover! The App Store is getting a revamp.

The brand new #App Store will be app-solutely beautiful!

New tab called Today, which is located at the bottom of your screen and features a new app every day (and the stories about the developers that created them!). In the Today tab, the App Store will have a new app of the day, game of the day, and a daily list that's focused on a theme or a goal, like meditation.

The new Games tab will have charts that feature different games based on popularity and ranking. You can browse by game categories, watch videos on gameplay, effortlessly scroll through ratings, and more.

The Apps tab focuses just on apps, so you don't have to worry about different games getting muddled into the mix.

Faster app review times

App Store cleanup

Machine learning

Powerful machine learning is made easy with a set of new APIs: vision tracking, natural language API, and more, which are all built on Core ML.

Did you know that the iPhone is 6 times faster than other phones, thanks to core ML?

AR (Augmented Reality)

With iOS 11, we're delivering the biggest AR platform in the world, and it's available today for developers to begin building AR experiences using ARKit for hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users... iOS 11 gives iPad users the powerful app functionality they need to take advantage of everything iPad is capable of, and brings hundreds of new features and incredible updates to the iOS apps iPhone and iPad users enjoy every day.

Introducing ARKit! A brand new set of APIs for iOS 11, AKA the largest AR platform in the WORLD.

With ARKit, the camera on your iPhone or iPad can identify surfaces and then you can digitally add certain objects to your real environment that will interact and acknowledge one another. For example, you can add a cup of coffee to your table, as well as a lamp, and every time you turn the lamp on or off or reposition the coffee, the shadows change like they would in real life!

ARKit provides fast motion tracking and uses your camera to play with plane estimation, allowing users to take advantage of the state-of-the-art mobile cameras they own, which means hundreds of millions of people will have access to ARKit on their iPhone and iPads!

[With AR], it's like you're the director of your own experience

iOS 11 for iPad & Apple Pencil details

iOS 11 really takes iPad to a whole new level… We are so excited about the marriage of iOS 11 and the new iPad Pro!

You can now summon the dock from anywhere on your iPad, pull a specific app out (regardless of what you're doing on your iPad!) and swap your apps for different apps on one screen. It's super simple. Drap and drop to iPad. Drag text, drag images, drag urls, etc!

It's a drag-fest!

The new Files app brings together all your files on your iPad and pulls them into a beautiful, simple layout that makes accessing your iPad's info as easy as pie. Files supports Google Drive, Dropbox, and other third-party organizing apps, so you don't have to worry about having documents floating around everywhere.

The app has a grid or list view that's super similar to your documents and files on your MacBook, and on the let of the Files app, you have access to all your third-party apps.

Tap and hold the Files app and you get instant access to the latest images, documents, etc. that you saved so you can add them to different projects that you're working on!

iOS 11 makes multitasking on iPad even more powerful with a new customizable Dock that provides quick access to frequently used apps and documents from any screen, and a redesigned app switcher makes it easier to move between pairs of active apps, used in Split View and now Slide Over.

When it comes to AR and your iPad, Apple is introducing a new platform for people to bring high-quality AR experiences to their iPad using the built-in camera, powerful processors and motion sensors in iOS devices.

ARKit allows developers to tap into the latest computer vision technologies to build detailed and compelling virtual content on top of real-world scenes for interactive gaming, immersive shopping experiences, industrial design and more.

In regards to the Apple Pencil, iPad, and iOS 11, now when you take a screenshot, a thumbnail will appear automatically in the lower left corner. You can then instantly go into Markup and edit it to your liking!

With the Apple Pencil, you can create inline drawings and have your iPad search your own personal handwriting using machine learning. With Notes, you can even scan certain documents and mark them up on your iPad with the Apple Pencil!

You can use the Apple Pencil to tap on the Lock screen, which will automatically unlock the iPad and take you to your note.

iOS 11 makes Apple Pencil for iPad Pro more versatile, powerful, and natural than ever. It's more useful for all kinds of tasks, such as taking notes, getting work done, or simply being creative.

Anything else?

If you're a big fan of texting and writing out emails with only one hand, then get excited for one-handed keyboard mode on iPhone that makes typing on the go even easier. Couple that with a new QuickType keyboard on iPad that delivers quick access to numbers, symbols and punctuation, and you're good to go!

When can we expect the newest version of iOS?

In the fall of 2017.

What do you think about iOS 11?

Are you excited for the latest version of iOS? What other features and products are you pumped about at WWDC? Let us know what you thinks in the comments below!